A rash of racist attacks have broken out in the US after Donald Trump’s victory

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Obsession

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Written by

Obsession

In his acceptance speech on Nov. 9, US president-elect Donald J. Trump made a pledge of unity, promising to be a leader for “all Americans.”

But some of his supporters have not heard that message. Even as Trump was speaking, one person in the audience yelled “Hang Obama,” and online commentators spewed a steady stream of racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic messages on a YouTube livestream, directed to “Anti-whites,” “Killery,” and “Jews in Congress.”

Things have gotten worse since then. Trump’s victory, which he achieved with 279 electoral college votes but without taking the popular vote, appears to have emboldened some of the white supremacists who support him offline too. Self-identified Trump supporters are harassing minorities, and calling for more organized white supremacy.

Near Boston, at Wellesley College, where Clinton went to school, two men from a neighboring college drove around the campus flying a Trump flag from their pickup truck, according to students who posted videos on Facebook. One wrote:

They laughed, screamed and sped around campus. Then, they parked in front of the house for students of African descent, and jeered at them, screaming Trump and Make America Great Again. When one student asked them to leave, they spit in her direction.

Utah high schools have several reports of Latino students being bullied, according to a local Fox News channel. One student whose parents are Mexican immigrants said she was told, “You wetbacks need to go back to Mexico.”

There is at least one instance of violence against suspected Trump voters as well. After a minor car accident, a white Chicago man was beaten by several black occupants of the other car involved, while bystanders yelled “Don’t vote Trump.” The man told the Chicago Tribune he was a Trump voter, but that there was no way a stranger could have known that.

The Klu Klux Klan white supremacist group is openly canvassing for new members in Birmingham, Alabama, where flyers were scattered in driveways on the morning after the election, the local NBC affiliate reported. “Get off the fence, whitey, and join the only group that has ever stood for the white man,” they read. “Black radicals have reverted back to savages and more Muslims arrive daily.”

The local leader of the group confirmed they were real to AL.com and added, “We must hold Trump’s promises close, and continue on to make damn sure he follows through.”

People are also sharing individual instances of harassment from people they thought were friends and allies. One Afghan immigrant from Nashville, Tennessee, said her former neighbor, and mother’s best friend for 10 years, sent her a message telling her to “go back to where she came from.”

This article originally included a report of an attack on a woman wearing a hijab in Louisiana. She later told police she fabricated the attack. It has also been updated to include an attack on a Trump voter.